Louis the Younger

Louis the Younger (835-20 January 882) was the King of Saxony from 876 to 882 and king of Bavaria from 880 to 882, succeeding Ludwig II of East Francia and preceding Charles the Fat.

Biography
Ludwig "the Younger" was born in 835 AD to Emperor Ludwig II of East Francia and Queen Hemma of Altdorf. In 865, Louis joined his brothers Carloman II of Bavaria and Charles the Fat in a rebellion against his father, and Louis gained Saxony, Thuringia, and the Duchy of Franconia, the last of which he used as his main title. In 869 he married Liutgard of Saxony, who encouraged Louis to pursue ambitious goals, leading to him rebelling against his father in 871 and 873. On his father's death in 876, he became Rex Francorum (King of the Franks) and emphasized his primacy by burying his father in Lorsch in his own territory. Charles the Bald of West Francia, his uncle, tried to annex the eastern portions of Lotharingia that Louis inherited, and on 8 October 876 Louis defeated Charles' larger army at Andernach. In 878, Charles the Bald died, and his successor Louis the Stammerer agreed with Louis to respect each others' sons' rules. However, in April 879 Louis was encouraged to seize the throne of West Francia, forcing Louis III of France and Carloman of France ceded their parts of Lotharingia to Louis the Younger. After 879, he fought the Vikings that fled from England to Germany, and in the February 880 Battle of Thimeon his illegitimate son Hugh (his only surviving son) was killed despite winning the battle. On 2 February his brother-in-law Bruno of Saxony and several other Saxon nobles were killed at the Battle of Ebstorf (near Hamburg), and Louis died in 882 after an illness that began a year earlier. All of his territories fell to his brother Charles the Fat, who was the last ruler of a united Carolingian Empire.